Thursday, June 21, 2012

Deadlocked Review

Deadlocked

Author: Charlaine Harris

Publisher:Ace Books/Berkley Publishing

American release date:May 1, 2012

Format/Genre/Length:Novel/Fantasy/327 pages

Overall Personal Rating:★★★★★

Sookie and some of her girl
friends—including a very pregnant Tara—decide to visit Hooligan’s on lady’s
night. The girls are dying to see Sookie’s cousin Claude—as much of him as they
can—and Sookie goes along with them, although truthfully she’s seen Claude in
the altogether, and not by choice, as her faery cousin has no inhibitions and
wanders the house in the buff.Luckily,
none of the ladies notice anything odd about the establishment, or those that
frequent it. The show is nice, but comes with an unexpected surprise in the
form of JB du Rone, Tara’s husband, stripping onstage.

Synopsis:

With Sookie where there’s one surprise,
there’s generally more, and tonight is no exception, as she receives her
great-grandfather Niall in her home, last seen when most of the faeries
departed and the entrance to Faery was closed. Sookie isn’t happy about the way
he treats his own son, Dermot, her great-uncle who could be Jason Stackhouse’s doppelganger.
When Niall leaves, he takes Claude with him, leaving a heart-broken Dermot
behind.

The next morning Eric’s dayman, Mustapha,
shows up on his motorcycle to warn her that the shit’s about to hit the fan—Felipe
de Castro is coming to Shreveport to talk about the disappearance of his buddy
Victor. Not that he’ll find him, of course, as Sookie and Eric, among others,
were party to his death. Sookie is disturbed that he found out through Janalynn
that Sookie has loaned some money to Sam Merlotte—that should have been private
business.

Sookie’s Gran left her a powerful gift in
the form of an ancient cluviel dor, and Sookie is unsure where to keep it,
vacillating between hiding it in her drawer or carrying it with her. She doesn’t
even know how it works or what it does, just that it’s very powerful and very
rare.

There is to be a meeting at Eric’s house
with Felipe and his group, at nine Pam says, but Mustapha calls back to tell
her to make it ten. Not that she’s in the mood anyway, but she agrees, as Eric’s
wife. When she arrives, Bill is on patrol outside and warns her to go, but she
says she can’t. Inside the house, the guests are behaving badly and crudely.
When she asks for Eric, she’s told he’s in the bedroom, so she heads to find
him, only to catch him in flagrante, drinking from the neck of a younger,
skinner blonde!

As if this isn’t bad enough, Sookie
realizes the blonde has been “enhanced” with faery blood, to make her even more
irresistible to vampires. If Sookie hadn’t shown up, or been later, he’d
possibly have lost control and killed her! Sookie and Pam manage to get rid of
the girl, but unfortunately she turns up again later—dead, on Eric’s lawn!

Sookie has to prove Eric’s innocence
while dealing with the usual confusion in her life, among them Claude’s
absence, the murder of the girl, the appearance of Eric’s “betrothed”, Felipe’s
investigation—not to mention the cluviel dor and what to do with it.

Commentary:

Not much time
left, only one Sookie book remains. I know I shall miss this spunky heroine
very much. Nothing is ever simple for Sookie; makes you wonder where’s her
happy ending and when’s it coming? And who will it be? Although by the end of
the book, there’s evidence of who it won’t be, never say never until it
happens, ‘cause appearances can be deceiving.

This book has
its fair share of surprises along with some tender moments, such as with Tara
and JB’s twins. Andy and Halleigh are expecting too, and both Hoyt and Jimmie
and Jason and Michele are preparing to tie the know.

I enjoyed this
twelfth volume very much, and anxiously await the next and last volume. I’ll
say it—I want Sookie to end up with Bill. I’m not holding my breath, but if it
would happen, I’d be happy.Most
importantly, I want Sookie to be happy.

So now we wait
for next year and the final story in the Sookie Stackhouse saga!